Sunday, November 11, 2012

I haven’t posted much lately. Sorry about that. But I have
indeed been doing things worth sharing, so share I will.

In the last few months, I’ve made several trips to the
village of Malya, about 2 hours out of Mwanza. In addition to home visits, my
boss and I have been helping the parish women’s group become more of a working
co-op. We’ve been helping them draft a constitution, elect officers, and decide
on which group projects to pursue. I really like this group and enjoy my time
out of the city.

We also invite two representatives of each of the co-ops to
the Capacitar office at Mrs. Mbogoma’s house to meet each other and share ideas
and concerns. The women did swap ideas and one group shared its constitution
with the others to use as a guide for creating their own. A representative of
SIDO (Small Industry Development Organization) also spoke and shared about what
they do and the types of services they offer groups (microfinance options,
trainings, etc). The women were very appreciative of the information they
received. While the planning of this seminar was a collective effort, the idea
was mine, so it was very satisfying to see it come to fruition.

Since my Kiswahili is still pretty lousy, most of my work is
behind the scenes. I’ve designed a series of worksheets to serve as a guide to help the women select a feasible
project that will be successful and profitable. The women have many good ideas,
but a good idea doesn’t always translate into a realistic business plan. I have also been designing a website
for Capacitar Tanzania. I hope to have it live online soon.

I’ve also been quite busy working on the arrival of our two
new missioners, I’m in charge of orientation for the next year, so there have
been emails, skype calls, immigration documents, etc to deal with.
Additionally, I helmed the reapplication of 5 current missioners residency
permits. Tanzania is updating its system for residency permits and cancelled
all current permits. We had to reapply. It was frustrating. No exciting stories
there. Just lots of paperwork and frustration. Bang your head against the wall
a few times and you’ll get a close approximation.

I also built this thing in our backyard (with the help of a
neighbor). I’m very happy with how it turned out, and we have christened it
“The Embassy.” It’s a safe place to serve as an escape when TZ beats us down.

So that’s it for now. Katie’s mom and stepdad are here for 2
weeks, so I’ll have plenty of new stories to share soon.

Please consider supporting our mission work. Financial Support can be sent to MKLM, P.O. Box 307, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0307 or online at http://tinyurl.com/ChrisandKatieReid. Denote “Chris and Katie Reid- Mission Account” in the memo line or intention box to support us in mission. All contributions are tax deductible.